Browse your music using several different methods, including the visually appealing (but not necessarily practical) Cover Flow

Stream media to AirPlay-compatible devices

Built-in sound enhancer and equalizer

Sound check feature that adjusts the volume of all tracks to similar levels

Built-in song crossfading support

Where It Excels

iTunes does everything. It manages just about any type of media you can think of in a simple and intuitive interface. Like most of Apple's software, it's nice to look at and isn't hard to learn. iTunes also comes with an enormous amount of features (as you can see above). There really isn't much it can't do that Apple hasn't explicitly chosen to omit (more on this below).

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Where It Falls Short

iTunes does everything. That is to say, it does far too much. While it was once an application designed to manage your music, it now manages your (Apple) mobile devices, video, books, ringtones, podcasts, apps, and a number of other things that aren't, well, tunes. On one hand this is useful, but on the other it makes for a big and bloated piece of software. This is more evident when syncing any device with iTunes, as the syncing process can be slow and tedious (not to mention archaic, as there's still no wireless option). While iTunes is very capable, it's often frustrating and slow.

Despite being so capable, iTunes only supports a handful of media file formats. Its technologies really only work with formats adhering to Apple's fairly strict specifications. So long as you're willing to do everything Apple's way, iTunes' lack of support for several file types isn't a drawback. However, that's not a description likely to fit anyone reading this post.

And then there's Ping, the music-centric social network built in to iTunes. It's not so much that this feature needs work, but that it really shouldn't exist in the first place. It's an unnecessary feature that few people use and care about.

The Competition

There are nearly no comparable alternatives on Mac OS X because iTunes is so deeply integrated into the Mac OS X experience. That said, there still is one particularly good alternative called Clementine. It matches many of the features of iTunes (including synchronization support for Apple and non-Apple music playing devices alike) and adds a number of new ones (Wiimote playback control, additional supported formats, tabbed playlists, and more). The primary downsides are the lack of a fair number of features that iTunes does have (as Clementine is pretty focused on music rather than all types of media) and the interface hasn't been thought out for each individual platform. Clementine looks almost identical on every platform, which is nice for consistency but prevents it from feeling like a truly native application. Nonetheless, it's still a very good alternative.

While it's not much in the way of competition, it is also worth mentioning Vox for those who don't have iDevices they need to sync and only want to play their music. Vox is a lightweight music player with plenty of features geared solely at making your music—in practically any format—sound its best. You'll find a built-in equalizer, effects, album art, gapless playback, and more. It's likely not going to be the first choice for many Mac users, as it's difficult to exist in the Apple ecosystem without using iTunes, but it's likely to be cherished by the niche group who aren't tied to the features only iTunes can provide.